Chapter Thirteen Summary

Cassie is preparing to marry Alex on the movie set to avoid media attention, which is fine with Cassie, who wants only to please him. She dreams that Connor is warning her about making a big mistake and being blind to the truth, seeing Alex as a wounded bird. He warns her that she collects others' problems, and that wounded birds never get better. She insists that she loves Alex.

Alex and Cassie take a camping and fishing trip into the woods, where his background in the bayou becomes evident. He reminisces about the hot Louisiana summers in his papa's pirogue catching crawfish. He recalls his father's neglect of him, and the necessity to learn how to catch fish to stave off his hunger, a feat which made his father proud enough to repeat the act of isolating Alex in the woods to force him...